Okay, this is an easy one — especially since so many of you who read this blog are Okies. Can you identify the person described below?

He was born in Indian Territory, later known as Oklahoma, in 1879. Like most entertainers at the turn-of-the-century, he got his start in vaudeville telling jokes and doing rope tricks. He made fun of the rich in a newspaper column and starred in early movies. He died with famous aviator Wiley Post when their plane crashed in Alaska in 1935.

There is no prize for getting the answer right, other than the satisfaction of knowing that you are “Soooooo” smart.

Civilization built upon civilization. Layers upon layers of the remains of people. Why is it that throughout history people have continued to inhabit the same geographic spaces? An earthquake destroys a city and the city is rebuilt. A neighboring tribe tears down protective walls and burns the homes, and the walls and homes are reconstructed. Certainly some causality can be ascribed to the fact that cities tend to be built in locations conducive to survival — near water, strategically elevated, etc. However, a large part of the answer has to do with the fact that “there is no place like home.”

I moved away from Northeastern Oklahoma twenty-five years ago. But it is still home. When I make the trip back to be with family and friends I can physically feel the tension release its hold on my body as I enter the familiar spaces of my childhood. In the last year I lost my mother and oldest brother to death. My father’s mental condition has deteriorated to the point that when I talk with him on the phone I am not sure that he knows who I am. Even as I write these words the cherished possessions of my parents are being prepared for an estate sale and my childhood home is being sold. The school from which I graduated has closed and the city of my youth has been all but wiped from the face of the earth due to a tornado and environmental pollution. My childhood friends have scattered to distant locations; Houston, Dallas, Kansas City, and beyond. And yet, it is the place that I still think of as “home”.

Why? Why are people so inextricably tied to their place of birth?

The rabbis said that God gives grace to a place in the eyes of its inhabitants. Consider the following story drawn from the Talmud;

A Sophist said to the Emperor Diocletian that no man could be happy except in the place of birth; the same is true, he said, of animals. To substantiate his words, he sent marked stags to Phrygia, and after a few years they returned.

Rabbi Simeon ben Kakish was studying on a porch in Tiberias and he heard two women passers-by say: “How happy we are to leave this accursed climate.” Interested, he asked them whence they had come and whither they were going. “We came from Mazega and we are returning,” they said. Rabbi Simeon turned to his Disciples and remarked: “I was once in Mazega and found the climate there abominable. Yet the natives are convinced it is the very best of places. Blessed is God who giveth grace to a place in the eyes of its inhabitants.”

Back in the 1970’s the chat piles surrounding Picher, Oklahoma were a very popular location for dirt-bike cyclists to test their skills. However, the ground was undermined and in many places had given way; the subsidence leaving gaping chasms that would swallow up anyone who was unaware.

On one Sunday a group of cyclists from Kansas City arrived and were offered a guide by locals to show them the potential danger areas. They refused the offered assistance and a few hours later one of them drove his motorcycle into a cave-in breaking his back. Lawsuits were pressed, but everyone knew that the biker’s injuries were the result of his own refusal to allow others to help him.

Credit cards are popular. However, care must be taken to avoid the danger of being swallowed in a deep chasm by those who are unaware of the risks. The Credit Card Club offers guidance to those who are entering this unfamiliar geography, but offered assistance must be accepted in order to be of benefit and eliminate otherwise unexposed risks.

Credit Card Club explores the different features of credit cards and and the companies that offer them. Reward cards, low interest cards, no annual fee cards, prepaid cards — which one is right for you? They can help you discover for yourself.

Don’t ignore their offer to guide you through the process. If you refuse their offer, and end up in a deep pit, you have have no one to blame but yourself.

I previously asked for prayer for my friends in Picher. I placed several phone calls today and I was told that it looks like a battle zone. Six people lost their lives in the tornado, and everyone else lost their homes.

If I am going to share with my kids the area where I spent my teenage years, I am going to have to do it right away because, it will all be gone soon. It sounds strange to say that a whole town, the school, the churches, the businesses will be gone . . . but they will. [Read more…]

Keith Anderson is from Miami, Oklahoma (Podunk) and this video was filmed there in his home town. Miami is home to other famous people, such as Kevin Stilley. Yes, that was a joke. Or, at least an attempt at one.